SAP NEWSBYTE - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced the new SAP® Tax Classification and Reporting for FATCA solution to help global financial institutions comply with the regulations of the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The solution addresses the need for financial institutions to be able to identify and classify U.S. taxable customers and report the required data to either local authorities or the American Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The announcement was made from “The Good Bank” live panel debate, organized by The Economist Intelligence Unit and being held on June 4 in London.

FATCA regulations become effective on January 1, 2014, and will impact all financial institutions with operations outside of the U.S. through either general regulations or intergovernmental agreements (IGAs), which would make classification of and reporting about U.S. taxable customers local law. Companies are required to adapt their processes and infrastructure in time to fulfill FATCA regulations, which are comprised of three process streams: customer identification and classification, annual reporting to the IRS and tax withholding.

SAP Tax Classification and Reporting for FATCA assists banks with the classification of customers and reporting of their customers’ account information. The classification platform analyzes and categorizes customer documents, such as electronic checks and local tax documents, to determine if they are FATCA-relevant. The data of FATCA-relevant customers is then passed through the reporting platform, which collects and centrally stores all the data and compiles a FATCA report.

SAP Tax Classification and Reporting for FATCA helps banks manage the overall FATCA compliance process and is integrated with core banking solutions from SAP, including the SAP® Deposits Management for Banking and SAP® Loans Management for Banking packages and other relevant systems for FATCA classification reporting, such as the existing customer information file, account and security management systems. The solution can be quickly and economically implemented since it analyzes already-available customer-specific information. It is also adaptable to different FATCA requirements within certain jurisdictions.

The financial services industry at SAP is growing rapidly, with more than 5,700 customers making it a valuable asset for collaboration and co-innovation. A major element of the company’s approach is to understand and address the specific needs of the industry in order to help financial institutions around the world become more customer-centric, reduce cost and complexity, and more easily manage regulatory and risk compliance.